GOP Blocks 9/11 Changes

The story that is sure to dominate the airwaves for the next few days:

The decision to block a vote on the landmark bill, which would have created the job of a cabinet-level national intelligence director to oversee the C.I.A. and the government's other spy agencies, came after what lawmakers from both parties described as a near-rebellion by a core of highly conservative House Republicans aligned with the Pentagon who were emboldened to stand up to their leadership and to the White House.

The bill would have forced the Pentagon, which controls an estimated 80 percent of the government's $40 billion intelligence budget, to cede much of its authority on intelligence issues to a national intelligence director.

"What you are seeing is the forces in favor of the status quo protecting their turf, whether it is Congress or in the bureaucracy," said Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who was the chief Senate author of the failed compromise bill, in what amounted to a slap at her Republican counterparts in the House.

The chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and the former governor of New Jersey, said that the lawmakers who blocked the vote should be held accountable by the public, and he blamed senior Pentagon officials as well.

Maybe it's because it's five in the morning, but I'm actually pretty happy about this. On the one hand, GOP lawmakers stood up against Bush, revealing that the great Republican Civil War has begun and that politicians are choosing sides. On the other it gives Democrats an opening to criticize Republicans on defense, which is a very big deal. There is not a red- or blue-stater who would feel comfortable with their representative voting against the 9/11 Committee's suggestions. I mean, the alternative is keeping the system the way it is, and well, apparently it's not too good the way it is. This will play out for weeks to come, and just may have an affect on 2006.